Even the Heat magazine seemed to be excited about it: "We were superglued to the pages of this book, and you'll be hooked too." And why wouldn't they be excited? It promises a unusual love story where a girl falls under the spell of very rich billionaire extraordinaire on the backdrops of high fashion and beautiful places. A modern day fairytale...
But after reading this book, I have been left a little bit disappointed I must say..
Firstly, the plot of the book reminded too much of Pretty Woman / Sex & The City films. An older rich guy finds himself a young mistress in financial hardship who is desperate to earn herself some pennies by sleeping and accompanying him to various social functions. The oldest trick in the history seems to be dusted off. Even with the big names from the fashion world and the amazing descriptions of The Bold and The Beautiful lifestyle, this book lacks some excitement. I found myself struggling to reach for it and read it. There were parts I have enjoyed, but most of the time I was a bit bored. There were boring fights and not very exciting and lacking-sexual-tension make up sessions, but at times the story even fell too forced on the readers.
But not all was that bad. There were times, I have truly laughed out loud and could relate to certain situations. The one thing and the most important thing I like about Manning's writing is that she keeps it real and very familiar. Every girl can find parts of her in every of Manning's stories. Plus, there is the fact, that all her books are so very british. You shop at M&S and Tesco, you drive the double-decker bus to work, and Starbucks is your coffee heaven. And this book is no different to the trend.
Having said that though, the first thing which popped into my mind after finishing reading this novel was: I am not going to read that again anytime soon. I'd rather re-watch Pretty Woman where the guy is at least a little bit attractive. But Vaughn (the main male character) failed to find his place into my day-dreams. Grace was the girl I didn't want to be. I even didn't want to have her as a best friend! All the characters just seemed too bland and boring to me.
So, I am very sorry to say this Ms Manning, but this book is a miss for me. I might have enjoyed myself a little bit more being lost in the wonderful world of fashion if I could relate to at least one of the characters, but your writing has failed to make me to envision the world for me to get lost in it.
Next time, I'd rather watch the original story with Julia Roberts and Richard Gere .. or all 6 seasons of Sex & The Cit. At least Carrie had the 8-year affair with Big. And a good fashion sense.
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